Sam Mendes Leaving Bond Behind With The Voyeur’s Motel

British director Sam Mendes has signed on for his first non-Bond movie since 2009 - and it sounds about as far removed from 007 as you can get.

The Wrap reports that Mendes has signed on to helm ‘The Voyeur’s Motel,’ a feature based on the true story of Gerald Foos, a man who, back in the 1960s, bought a motel to facilitate his voyeurism.

Foos “would watch his guests having sex through ceiling vents.” As if that wasn’t sinister enough, things took an even darker turn when he witnessed “a murder that he played a role in causing.”

The case was the subject of an article in the New Yorker by Gay Talese, published just this past week, which will form the basis of the film. (Read it in full here.)

Mendes is confirmed to produce and direct, but there’s no word yet on who will write the screenplay, let alone any suggestions about casting.

It’s also noteworthy that Mendes will make the film for Dreamworks, the studio which gave him his debut film ‘American Beauty’ in 1999, prior to which the director had only worked in theatre.

‘American Beauty’ proved a critical and commercial smash, winning several Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for the debutante Mendes.

‘The Voyeur’s Motel’ looks to be a return to smaller-scale, edgy character-based material - a far cry from the bombast of James Bond, with which Mendes has been busiest the past five years.

His 2012 Bond debut ‘Skyfall’ became arguably the most critically acclaimed entry of the entire 24 film series, as well as the most commercially successfully with a global box office haul of over $1.1 billion.

2015′s ‘Spectre,’ meanwhile, was not so favourably received by critics or audiences, but still took an admirable $880 million worldwide.

Picture Credit: Eon Productions

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